Samantha Akkineni In The Family Man 2: As the trailer of the long-anticipated series released on May 19, mixed reactions were witnessed from the Indian audience, consisting of praises for Akkineni's portrayal of her character as Raaji and backlashes for various reasons such as stereotyping the South Indians.
Ahead of the release scheduled for June 4, Samantha Akkineni along with the creators of the Family man faced immense outrage on the internet. #ShameOnYouSamantha has been trending recently on Twitter along with hate tweets against the South Indian actor which are currently flooding the social media platform.
Tweets such as those claiming that Akkineni betrayed Tamils, gained huge likes and retweets on social media platforms.
#ShameonYouSamantha
— 👑அருண்மொழித்தேவன்🐯 (@KamalThamizhan) June 2, 2021
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction!
pic.twitter.com/ES3IbbNmie
If India Fought against British racists that is called freedom fight
— Ranjith nagarajan (@ranjithnagara) June 2, 2021
If LTTE Fought against Singhalese racists that is called Terrorism
what a logic?#familyman_against_tamils #ShameonYouSamantha @Samanthaprabhu2 pic.twitter.com/hgKPiAidva
Samantha Akkineni In The Family Man: 10 Things To Know
- Akkineni, who is making her OTT debut with the Family Man 2, isn't new to controversies. Her bold and frequent appearances on social media have contributed to a major reason for the same.
- One of the raging tweets against Akkineni read, "Tamils gave identity to the Telegu born Samantha, now she is in heights because of the Tamils. Now she started betraying Tamils by portraying Tamils as Terrorist. She wants to act in Bollywood, that's why she is betraying Tamils."
- Akkineni's character Raaji is a militant Tamil, fighting for an independent state.
- When claims of Akkineni playing an antagonistic character on the show went viral, the 34-year-old actor defended the claim by saying, "I wouldn’t call Raaji (her character) an antagonist. It’s just that maybe she has a different point of view compared to Srikant (Manoj Bajpayee's character). But that does not necessarily mean she is bad."
- Reportedly, the global OTT platform repressed Akkinenni from speaking out about her role.
- "It is just that she has a different faith and a different set of beliefs. I would call her fiercely loyal to her cause", clarified the actor.
- The Family Man 2 received backlashes from viewers for stereotyping the South Indians and feeding into the prejudice of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) organisation being terrorists.
- Previously, the Tamil Nadu government sought to ban the series for portraying Tamilians in a “highly objectionable” manner. Moreover, the show was accused of as an attempt to discredit the struggle of the Eelam Tamils in Sri Lanka.
- Although the release was scheduled earlier, its launch was reportedly delayed when the Saif Ali Khan starrer Tandav faced backlash for reportedly hurting the religious sentiments of a section of the audience.
- Nevertheless, creators Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. denied all of the accusations by stating that the "true essence of a character cannot be gauged from a brief promotional trailer".